Howdy from S. Vermont

[The Goat Man]

Thanks….
He didn’t look so good a year ago. He’s a “Good” Boy……Got a good heart, and no bad habits really. I want to log with him a little, nothin serious. Looking for an affordable forecart, might build one if i can’t find what I want. Got a set of chain harrows on the list too. I’m rejuvenating pastures with an excavator, and would like to smooth things up and make it all look pretty before reseeding. A Sleigh maybe…..and I want to ride him. You can get a lot of work done with a machine, but when I first drove a team pulling a wagon on a woods road in late November, there was a calmness and connection I’ve never felt with a Bull Dozer…….and I never had one waiting for me at the gate every morning

[Andy Carson]

That’s great, Gary. I used to work a single horse for a few years doing a variety of tasks. If I was looking at your list, the first thing I would get is a harrow. It is a good pull, real work, but not too hard. It will teach you and him a great number of basic skills and it will forever be a useful tool in the field, pasture, and garden. If you are going to log, and you are building something anyway, you might consider building a logging arch. There’s plans for these floating around on this site, although all that I’ve seen require some welding skill. Also, you might consider building a work sled rather than buying a sleigh. They are very basic and cheap to build out of wood and can multi-task around the farm hauling things like manure, hay, firewood, rocks, etc as well as people. If you want to sit, just put down a bale of hay. There’s a bunch of unsolicited advice for you!

[The Goat Man]

Hi Andy……..Thanks. I’l take all the advice I can get. I’ve had my eyes on the right piece of Ash..(hey, that could me misconstrued) with the right bend in it to make some runners for a sled. I have a small Band Mill and want to saw out the runners, lay some 1/4″ flat stock on them, and build up. Might be going to look at a Pioneer forecart here soon. I have seen pics of an Arch, and can build one of those pretty easy. Might add a little winch to pick the ends of the sticks up a little. I’ve got a small set of disc harrows set up for a 3pt hitch that could probable be modified pretty easy to pull with a forecart. They are small enough where I don’t think they would be to hard on him. Also picked up and old grown driven JD Manure Spreader last summer. Needs new wood, but I doubt it has had 20 loads of manure through it. You wipe the grease off the sprokets, and it’s John Deere Green…….It sat outside and was never took care of. Not loaded to heavy, he could handle that too on flat goin.

[Andy Carson]

Here’s a photo of a work sled to show you how simple they can be. I used mine with my single horse a lot and use it now with my oxen now too. Qreat multitaskers. They are good for conditioning too, as they can be loaded down with heavy things so your mule can get in shape.
[IMG]https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTKBm1DR1rH2QeAYQG3xBQrxZuIctExQ-QaRRBhnuj4E1ORxLMz[/IMG]

A lot of people love thier forecarts, and I bought one because it seemed like everyone else had one so I ought to too. After I had it, but I rarely used it for anything other than cart rides for the family. Here’s why. A forecart with you on it weighs maybe 500 lbs (this will vary), and requires a force of about 50 pounds to pull in the field. Pulling the cart alone is a super easy job for almost any size horse, as a good rule of thumb is to ask them to pull about 15% of thier body weight (Although this can go up or down a lot depending on the nature of the job). So, a 1500 horse or mule can exert a pull of about 225 lbs all day. Subtract 50 pounds for the cart and you have 175 pounds for the implement. It’s a loss of about 20% in power to the implement. For me, I found that it was very easy to overload a single horse and you always have to be aware of what you are asking and be on the lookout for ways to increase efficiency. I hated losing 20% of the already limited power, so I walked or rode on the implements if they needed extra weight. It is noteworthly that for teams of horses, the percent lost to a forecart is less and less as the animals get bigger and the number of animals increases. A pair loses only 10% to a forecart, which may well be made up for in efficency gains from working at a more natural speed or by having the driver be less distracted. Larger teams lose even less, and for these the power loss is not worth thinking about.

I have disced with a single a lot. I found a good size to be a single gang about 3.5 feet wide. A second gang doubles the force. I have had to make or adapt all of my discs because I was not able to find equipment sized right for a single.

I truly believe the single horse/mule concept is an interesting one for the right applications. It sounds like you have a significant about of heavier work you want to do, and living on a working farm, you will undoubtable find more when you get get more experience with your animal(s). Have you thought about getting another mule to pair up with your guy? It sure makes finding equipment easier and makes a big difference with the amount of work you can do. You might want to think on this a bit before investing in much “single sized” equipment. If you eventually move to a team, all that stuff is going to be too small and you will have to buy or make other tools. Been there, done that…

[The Goat Man]

Hey Andy……Thanks for the pic. It’s pretty much what I had in my mind. I can definetley see the versatility in it. I’m puttin together a little sugar rig for this spring and was wanting to add gathering sap to the list of things to do with my Mule. (A friend told me don’t let him drink out of a sap bucket. I guess he did with his horse, and the horse would “sneak” off to the left side of the road, while my friend was gatherin on the right.)

I’d think, (I don’t know) you would need shafts on a sled too, or wouldn’t it run up on your animal? The numbers are something I know nothing about….I figured you just had to judge kind of by sight how much your were askin him to do, meaning if it was to heavy, lighten it up and so on. I had the same logic about a forecart…..figured everybody else had one so that’s the next thing to buy. The one I have had in my mind could be used single or double. I’ve also had the idea of another Mule too. When I was looking and had to have one, they were scarse, in my neighborhood anyway. Now teams seem to be coming out of the woodwork. Don’t know what I would do with my little Donk either……I get to attached to my critters sometimes…..

I did this late last fall with the Hoe, then bucketed a big pile of Goat manure all around it sprinkelin it with the tractor. Like to drag it with something to work it in, then seed it with pasture mix soon as it warms up.

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